5 Steps to a Successful Parent Meeting
Photo by Ante Hamersmit on Unsplash
It was the summer of 2014, and I’m trying to get as many kids as possible to go to camp. I advertised, secured scholarships, made phone calls and much more, but I’d hit a ceiling. Many kids couldn’t go because their parents had already scheduled something that week or they had already committed to attending one of other paid events throughout the summer and couldn’t afford it.
Sound familiar?
One dad told me he’d love to send his kids to camp, but he hadn’t budgeted for it. If I’d told him about all the things earlier, they may have been able to go.
Thus, the parent meeting was born.
Even though it started as an information meeting, over the years, the meeting has morphed into a vision casting and connection point for parents.
It’s one of the most valuable events I do all year.
5 Steps to a Successful Parent Information Meeting.
1. Plan the Year.
You don’t have to have every event listed and don’t feel like you’re locked into everything you’ve listed in the meeting. However, you can include the biggest events that cost time and money. I give out a calendar of events at the meeting which includes the dates, when registration opens and closes, how much it’s going to cost and the age range if applicable. I usually print more than I need and continue to pass these out through Easter.
The bulk of the parent meeting is going over the events on the calendar, casting a little vision for each one, and outlining how parents can be involved. Also, I use pictures from the previous year which help a lot more than anything I say.
If you need help planning out your year, read this post.
In addition to my events, I include my preaching calendar. This helps parents understand where we’re going spiritually and what their kids need.
One thing I do say at the beginning of the meeting is that everything on calendar is tentative. Even though you believe all the information is correct, something may change in the next 12 months. Doing so will keep you from being locked in to something in case something crazy happens like a global pandemic. (I'm looking at you 2020)
2. Cast vision.
At the beginning of the year, everyone is thinking about the new plans and opportunities that the new year holds. This is a great time to remind everyone of your mission and vision.
I like to think of the meeting like the State of the Union, but with a better speaker and food. I report salvations, baptisms, camp and VBS attendance and any other number that shows we are accomplishing our goals. Then I remind parents of our mission and vision and how they play a role in the process. This may be the only time you have most of your parents listening and wanting to hear from you, so don’t waste it.
3. Keep it short.
I’ll admit, this one is difficult for me. My first few meetings were on Wednesday nights during church for an hour.
And I talked. The. Entire. Time.
Later I moved it to after Sunday morning service and provided a meal. The food was appreciated but the meeting was still 60 minutes or longer(!).
Finally, I put the meeting after the last Sunday morning service on the final Sunday of January. I served only snacks and kept it to 30 minutes, cutting my information to just the essentials.. More parents showed up making the event more successful.
However in an effort to be efficient, don’t make the meeting too short. The youth pastor at my last church scheduled only 15 minutes for his meeting after a Wednesday night service. Afterwards, he said it was too short and he couldn’t cover all the important information.
Make the meeting as long as it needs to be.
4. Offer connection points.
It’s easy to think that in our information overloaded world your parents don’t want one more thing to read, like, engage, follow, or watch. However, this is their kids’ spiritual education, and in my experience, many parents want to know what their kids are learning.
As part of my vision casting section of the meeting, I always give many ways for parents to connect with me, the children’s ministry, and each other. It’s up to them to decide how to connect with me, but I give them all the channels the ministry uses. You can read how I communicate with parents throughout the week here.
At the end of the meeting I have sign up sheets for parents to show interest and get more information about the events as they come.
5. Watch their children.
There’s one thing that can derail your meeting faster than an unexpected fire drill, kids. They’ll be fidgety, play their video too loud, or constantly bother their parents with questions.
We all love kids, but for this meeting, they don’t need to be in the room.
Watching everyone’s kids allowed my parents to focus and not worry about what their little one is doing. I hire childcare workers to watch the kids during the meeting with food and games to play. The kids usually wanted to come so they can have free play with their church friends.
Bonus: Record it.
Parents are busy and many of them have plans for after church and can’t make the meeting. To further complicate things, my last church had a Saturday night service. Asking those parents to come back in the middle of the day on their day off was difficult.
To help parents, I started going live on the kids Facebook page. I didn’t have many parents watch while it was live, but after the meeting was over, I had a ready-made video I could share. After the meeting I’d email parents the link to watch on their own time.
The benefit of recording and/or going live is that a lot more parents get the content. Most of the time, a small percentage of my parents came to the meeting.
All that time and effort to put together the presentation could be counted as a loss. But, because I made a live video and shared it, close to 30% of my parents watched at least the first few minutes of the meeting.
If you’re worried about the tech or the expense of going live, don’t be. You can do it with an iPhone pointed at you during the meeting. Many times, I used my iPad leaned against some books on a table about 5 feet away from me. It’s not polished or even great quality, but in today’s DIY video world, it doesn’t have to be. Just hit live on your phone and start talking. You’ll be surprised at how well it does.
Parents want to know what’s going on in your ministry. And if we want to partner with them, they need to know in what ways they can. If you take the time to plan and inform your parents, they will applaud you, and any time you can get applause is a win.
If you’d like a sample of the calendar or my presentation notes, leave me a comment with your email and I’ll be happy to share.
